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Task Manager and Activity Monitor

Today’s topic is on Task Manager / Activity Monitor. More specifically, processes. Processes is a term given for specific files on your computer that are responsible for running programs and maintaining your computer’s status quo. Also, if you’re wondering, this IS a more advanced topic than normal. See warning below.

For reference, Task Manager is opened using Ctrl+Shift+Esc, and Activity Monitor by searching for it using Spotlight.

Windows: Task Manager has several tabs on it that are useful. Most everyone just focuses on the first one, but the second tab over, processes, is so much more powerful! You can sort by memory usage, processor usage, name, etc. etc. The advantage to this is that you can manually close down certain programs that are hogging up your system, or at least identify what they are so you can close them safely.

WARNING: This is more advanced and should be tiptoed into rather than jumped into. Explore within here and make notes. Find out more about the processes on your computer, and what uses the most of your computer’s resources. Then, if you want to try something, check with me first :D. The LAST thing desired is to close down something critical and have your computer crash, but at the same time, it’s the best feeling in the world to be able to tell what’s going on with your computer moment to moment. Then again, I’m pretty biased.

Mac: Activity Monitor takes a little getting used to. It operates like the Processes section of Task Manager, but it adds 100% per processor core. So depending on your system, you can have several hundred percent cumulative with all your processes, which may seem confusing. It does, however, give you the same advantage as Task Manager in that you can troubleshoot a slow computer more effectively with this program. You don’t always need to close everything, just the right thing.

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